1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an image forming apparatus, an input control method, an input control program, and a storage medium.
2. Description of the Related Art
With increasing security consciousness, technologies are widely used in which a print job sent from a computer, such as a personal computer, to an image forming apparatus, such as a multifunctional machine, is authenticated and, if the authentication is successful in the image forming apparatus, printing is performed using the print job.
For example, Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. 2008-003782 discloses a technology in which management information is generated from serial numbers that are read from an external USB (universal serial bus) memory that is externally attached to a multifunctional machine and then authentication is performed using the generated management information. Normally, input devices (for example, a soft keyboard using a touch panel) included in image forming apparatuses as standard do not have excellent input performance. If an external input device can make inputs as disclosed in the Japanese Patent Application, the input performance improves.
If inputs from multiple input devices can be made, multiple users can simultaneously input authentication information that is used for authentication. However, this situation is not preferable.
The present invention is made in view of the above-described problem. Objectives of the present invention is to provide an image forming apparatus to which inputs of authentication information from multiple input devices can be made while conflict of inputs of the authentication information can be prevented and to provide an input control method, an input control program, and a storage medium.